Widely regarded as one of the most important and original composers of the early twentieth century, Janáček was also a conductor, organist, teacher and a significant authority on folk music. Apart from opera, the only other genre that Janáček worked in throughout his life is the one featured on this disc, the unaccompanied chorus. It was the formation, in 1903, of the Moravian Teachers Choir (the same choir as on this recording) that gave him the added incentive of writing for chorus. The music ranges from the folk based Ploughing (Orání), Janáček’s earliest known composition, to the powerful and polyphonically complex The 70,000, about the revolt of Silesian miners.